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andy matsko/staff photo
Reading's Anthony Hewitt (25) is congratulated by manager Dusty Wathan after hitting one of his two home runs during Saturday's game against the Richmond Flying Squirrels at FirstEnergy Stadium. Reading fell 6-5.

andy matsko/staff photo
Reading pitcher Austin Wright (21) congratulates Anthony Hewitt after Hewitt's first home run during Saturday's game against Richmond at FirstEnergy Stadium. Hewitt later added a three-run blast in Reading's 6-5 loss.

READING - The month of June has treated Anthony Hewitt fairly well.

While it hasn't been terrible for the team, the Reading Fightin Phils haven't found Hewitt's level of success.

Hewitt hit his fifth and sixth homers of the month Saturday night, sparking a rally that ultimately fell short as the Richmond Flying Squirrels held off a late-charging Fightins squad 6-5 in front of 8,062 fans at FirstEnergy Stadium.

It took a while for Hewitt to put up any power numbers this season. His first home run came on a walk-off blast against Altoona on May 22, but Hewitt has since been bombs away in June.

He has seven homers on the season and four in the last two weeks.

"I'm keeping it simple," Hewitt said. "Stand up the middle and see the ball deep. When you don't try to hit home runs, they come. When you try, you struggle."

Reading manager Dusty Wathan noticed much of the same.

"I think he's getting ready sooner," Wathan said. "If you looked at his swings tonight, they were nice and easy. The ball jumps off his bat as long as he's ready and has his foot down.

"He doesn't have to swing hard. He can hit the ball a long way."

Hewitt hit a solo blast to left field in the third inning, and then launched a fastball to left field again in the seventh inning for a three-run blast.

Two-homer nights are nothing new to Hewitt, apparently.

"Every year since I've been playing," he said with a grin. "It feels good and it's always a nice feel. Everybody that plays ball wants to have nights like that."

It jumpstarted a rally, but like so many other times this season, Reading put itself in too big of a hole.

Starter Austin Wright, who has struggled immensely this season, gave up six runs (five earned) on eight hits while walking four in 5.1 innings of work.

Richmond wasted no time, scoring three runs in the first inning. Wright walked the first batter of the game, and later on in the fourth inning, he walked the pitcher to begin the inning. He eventually came around to score as well.

Wathan told it like it was after the game.

"He wasn't very good tonight," Wathan said. "His fastball command wasn't very good. There wasn't a lot good out there. I don't know what it is. You can't walk the leadoff guys."

Reading trailed 4-0 before its third at-bat. Hewitt got a run back on the solo home run, but Richmond scored in the top of the fourth on a double by Joe Panik.

The Fightins scored again in the fifth to make it 5-2 on a Tyson Gillies single that scored Hewitt.

And just as if it was déjà vu, Richmond answered with another run of its own in the sixth.

"We couldn't get a shut-down inning after scoring a single run," Wathan said. "Shutdown innings are huge at any time but once you're behind, especially, we were never able to gain momentum."

Hewitt's three-run blast made it 6-5 and put a jump into the Baseballtown crowd.

The bullpen combination of Hector Neris, Jay Johnson and Luis Garcia combined to throw 3.2 innings of shutout baseball to give the Fightin Phils a shot.

In the bottom of the ninth, Reading drew a two-out hit-by-pitch (Zach Collier) and an infield single (Hewitt). However, with the winning runs on the base path, Gillies grounded out to third base to end the game.

"The energy level wasn't as high as we wanted it to be," Hewitt said. "But it is a long season. We do have our ups and downs. I'm pretty sure we won't have too many of those days."

(Follow Burkhart and the Reading Fightin Phils on Twitter at @AnthonyBurkhart) Game Summary

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